Is There a Better Way to Train HYROX? Join Our Study

I know hierox is often seen as a running sport, but nowadays many athletes train in affiliates where long threshold sessions or interval sessions are common

and the actual running volume remains rather low. So in this video I will

rather low. So in this video I will explain a new study we are setting up right now. One group group A will train

right now. One group group A will train predominantly running while another group B will be doing mostly strength and functional movements. and we want to see if there is a best way to train

Harox. The goal of this video is to

Harox. The goal of this video is to convince you to partake in this study because the more people enter the study, the higher the validity is. So without

further ado, let's go straight into it.

[Music] Hi everyone, welcome back to another science video. My name is Gomear. I'm a

science video. My name is Gomear. I'm a

senior scientist at ETHZurich based in Switzerland. And for the last decade or

Switzerland. And for the last decade or so, I studied and taught different aspects of exercise physiology. And my

goal now is to bring some of the science that I learned back to you guys. So, if

you have ever watched a hierox competition or done one yourself, you've heard a lot or a lot of people saying that it's simply a running competition.

If you're good at running, you're good at hierros. Well, I want to caveat that

at hierros. Well, I want to caveat that a little bit here. For example, you see here the the splits, the running splits as well as the functional uh fitness or the functional stations splits of an

elite hierox racer. And you see that usually, let's say he's doing 60 minutes of racing, 50% is going to be running and 50% are going to be the functional

stations. So that's already one thing.

stations. So that's already one thing.

There is actually a lot of time spent doing the functional stations. But maybe

more important is the trickle down effect from the functional stations on the running. For example, here you see

the running. For example, here you see the oxygenation, the muscle oxygenation of an elite hierroxer that we tested in the lab or in the gym. And he was doing

a specific workout consisting of running functional fitness movements like sled push, devil press and so on and then also back into a running in different intervals. And what we see here is that

intervals. And what we see here is that there are a lot of fluctuations in muscle oxygen in relative muscle oxygen between the different stations and between the running. So your body has to

be really capable of handling this fluctuations in muscle oxygen and be able to do that compromised running.

It's really not that easy for your body to cope with these different blood distributions that are coming, for example, from a heavy sled push where most of the blood is needed in the

posterior chain. and then go straight

posterior chain. and then go straight into a run. I think many people who are watching this video who have done the lunges as well as for example the sled pushes and then go back into a run have

experienced this and this much of this has to do with muscle oxygenation. You

decrease your muscle oxygen during those heavy load functional fitness stations and then you go into a run where you have to flush out this. So it's

something that you have to train specifically and it's way more than simply being good at a 5k run. So this

is quite intriguing to me and this is something what sparked my interest of doing this study because I know that if you open or if you have an uh Hyrox affiliate, you have more and more

Hierrox affiliates now. You have people coming into the gym and they do four to five times per week a specific workout that is Hyrox or an endurance interval session that uses most of the time

functional movements. also sometimes a

functional movements. also sometimes a bit of running but most of the time spent is doing functional movements and my question is okay is this actually a good transfer to overall hierog

performance right or would it be better to just simply run 80% of your time and do a little bit of strength on the side so that's exactly the setup we want to do in this study in this remote study I

will get to all the details now we have one group and I call them hierox running four out of five sessions will be running different intensities, uh, interval sessions, uh, fast interval

sessions, long slow aerobic sessions such as, uh, zone 2, and then one day per week will be strength, and then followed by some kind of an MRAP or a longer workout that uses the functional

movements that are often seen in Hierrox. And then the group B, I call

Hierrox. And then the group B, I call this affiliate or hierox affiliate, will do kind of the opposite. They will do one running session. Usually, it's going to be zone two or some uh intervals as

well. And then on the other side, four

well. And then on the other side, four out of five sessions will be in the gym, right? Affiliate training where you do

right? Affiliate training where you do uh different styles of functional movements, different styles of uh MRAPs, um high-intensity workouts, but also low inensity workouts using functional

movements. So, we really are

movements. So, we really are meticulously programming this because the goal of this all is to have the same training load between group A and group B. That's obviously crucial. If you have

B. That's obviously crucial. If you have different training loads, then it doesn't really make sense. So, we are plotting out every session. We are um estimating the intensity that is needed

to do that session as well as the duration. And if you add all of them

duration. And if you add all of them together, we hope to have the same uh training load or the same trip where I've talked about before in previous videos. So, that would be the the setup.

videos. So, that would be the the setup.

And then the question is, okay, how do you test this? Right? because we also want to do a test week before and after the eight weeks of training. And here it

becomes pretty crucial to use the right tests. So if you have some comments or

tests. So if you have some comments or if you want to help us with building out the tests, please put it in the comment section below. It really helps us out to

section below. It really helps us out to to better understand or to be to be sure to use the right test. But this is what we came up with. Now the first day or

one of the tests for sure will be a hierox a full hierox simulation in your category open or the pro weights that's for sure we have to include that but we

also want to know which parts or which aspects of hierox are going to be improved by our training. So we also do a 5k run flatout 5k run both groups do

that and then we have two more functional fitness tests. Test three

would be our classic test that we use a lot also in other studies that we have done other remote studies. It will be a seven minute mRAP of burpees. So as many burpees as you can and then straight

into a 1k row. So it's an an endurance test but you still use the functional movements. Uh it's important to do

movements. Uh it's important to do mostly endurance tests here. And then

the last test what which we want to include in the 7-day testing week will be Karen the CrossFit workout. Karen

simply 150 wall balls for time. very

straightforward, very functional I would say and a good let's say transfer to hierox. Again, if you have some other

hierox. Again, if you have some other ideas that we could include in this testing week or where we have to sub other uh tests, please put them in the comment section. Happy to learn. So

comment section. Happy to learn. So

those kind of tests we will do before and after this eight weeks of uh training that will be group A and group B and then we want to see which aspects of Hierox improve and if a whole hierog

simulation can also be improved one way or another. The schedule is pretty

or another. The schedule is pretty straightforward. So we start all

straightforward. So we start all together on let me check here October 13th. So Monday October 13 I think it

13th. So Monday October 13 I think it will be approximately 8 to 9 days from when this video is published. Then we

have our testing week, right? A full

week of testing. Then we have eight weeks of actual training all together, different groups. And then we have our

different groups. And then we have our post testing uh at the end of December.

So right before Christmas, you will have your results and you can happily enjoy Christmas dinner for sure. So a couple more things to explain here. First of

all, what do you get out of this, right?

Like why would you actually do this study? Um, you get 10 weeks of

study? Um, you get 10 weeks of sciencebacked training. So, we really

sciencebacked training. So, we really try to meticulously program your training so that you are progressively overloading in or running or using the functional movements depending on which

group you are. By the way, you are randomly assigned to any group, right?

So, you cannot bribe me to put uh you in a specific group. I don't take bribes, at least not below €5,000. Uh, but

anyway, it should be randomly allocated.

You will have measurable results. proven

meable results and pretty fun. You will

be included into a discord group so we can talk about this. We can have some kind of a community also share some pictures, share some videos. It's always

super fun to talk with like-minded people about this. You will certainly also learn a lot about your own body, about your own training. Uh by doing this study, what we need from you

because you also have something to do here. You would have to log at least 80%

here. You would have to log at least 80% of your sessions. So four out of five sessions per week. Let's say you have something else to do or you're sick for a couple days. That's okay. We just want

you to log approximately 80% or more.

Obviously, best would be more of your sessions. You would have to do the pre

sessions. You would have to do the pre and the post testing obviously otherwise we cannot really use your results. And

you should have at least some experience in CrossFit or Hierrox. We say here six months of CrossFit or Hierrox experience because you have to be used to all the functional movements and so on. And the

programming will be not super beginner level. It would rather be uh

level. It would rather be uh intermediate to advanced uh programming.

So you can actually progress. If you are interested in joining this study, please simply click the link the first link in the description or scan the QR code that

is popping up right now. It's completely

for free. You will learn a lot and you will help the science of hierox. Cool. I

hope that you get a good grasp of what the study actually entails. If you want to learn more on how we did previous studies similar like this, similar remote studies in more in the CrossFit

space, click the video that is popping up right now. Don't forget to subscribe to the study and see you in the next

video. Ciao.

video. Ciao.

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